Today, the San Jose Sharks took care of arguably one of the team’s most important pieces of business this offseason, especially in this offer sheet era. General Manager Mike Grier announced this morning that Macklin Celebrini agreed to a new, five-year contract that will keep the young forward with the team through the 2031-32 season. The deal will make Celebrini the highest-paid player in the league (for now) and carries a cap hit of $18.8 million per season when it goes into effect in 2027-28. The Sharks only lock Celebrini up for one year of his unrestricted free agency; however, San Jose gets a steal in the sense that it is not a max deal, which means it’s less than 20% of the salary cap.
During his media availability this afternoon, Grier was clear that Celebrini was well worth every penny of that max deal and if that was what the forward had asked for, it was likely that he would have received it.
“With what he’s done in his first couple years in the NHL and in the Olympics and World Championships and everything, he would have had every right to ask for the max 20%,” said Grier. “We’re very thankful that he was willing to give us some flexibility and take a little bit less and leave some money on the table to help us continue to grow our team.”
With how the cap is expected to rise next season, a max deal would have been over $20 million per season if Celebrini had chosen to ask for it.
For his part, Celebrini is all about committing to the team.
“I couldn’t be happier to sign an extension today,” Celebrini said in the team’s news release. “The faith and support that Mr. Plattner, Mike Grier and the entire staff have shown me throughout the past two seasons is proof that we are building something special here. My teammates and I are ready to take another step toward the ultimate goal of bringing a Stanley Cup to this city and its incredible fans. I can’t wait to get going.”
The structure of Celebrini’s new contract
Of note, the new contract doesn’t go into effect until 2027-28, so this season, the Sharks still get Celebrini for $975,000 ($4.475 million when you take into account performance bonuses).
Next season, Celebrini will get PAID. While the cap hit is $18.8 million, he’ll actually receive $20.8 million in year one, according to Puckpedia. Celebrini’s base salary is $950,000, and he’ll receive a signing bonus of $19.85 million. There’s a similar structure in the 2028-29 season.
| 2027-28 | 2028-29 | 2029-30 | 2030-31 | 2031-32 | |
| Base Salary | $950,000 | $950,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
| Signing Bonus | $19,850,000 | $19,850,000 | $19,800,000 | $16,100,000 | $13,500,000 |
| Total Salary | $20,800,000 | $20,800,000 | $20,800,000 | $17,100,000 | $14,500,000 |
The five-year deal takes Celebrini into his first year of unrestricted free agency. Interestingly, that first year of unrestricted free agency also includes a no-movement clause, though Puckpedia wasn’t clear on the details of the clause.
Grier praised owner Hasso Plattner for his willingness to pay what it took to get this deal done.
“I think he realized what a special player Macklin is and how important it is and was for us to get him under contract. So he didn’t hesitate when the signing bonus stuff came up,” said Grier. “He was more than willing to do it to get the deal done. I think it just shows his commitment to the organization and to us trying to be the best hockey team we can be.”
Percentage of the salary cap
According to Puckpedia, when Celebrini’s contract kicks in, it will be 16.56% of the cap. Of course, if the cap continues to increase as his contract wears on, the percentage of the cap that Celebrini’s deal consumes decreases, and the deal only gets better and better for the Sharks.
During the news conference, Grier told the media that Leo Carlsson’s $18 million offer sheet didn’t really change anything much for the Sharks, except maybe set the bar a little bit higher. The team knew from the start that Celebrini was going to get paid whatever he wanted based upon his performance to date. The Sharks also knew that Celebrini was likely going to be the highest-paid player in the league.
“We kind of had an idea it was going to head that way, just with what he’s accomplished so far and his age and everything,” said Grier. “We thought there was probably a good chance it was gonna be somewhere above [Kirill] Kaprisov’s; we didn’t know where it would be above there, but we thought there was probably gonna be a good chance it would be above there.”
For Grier, he was again just grateful that Celebrini was willing to do what he could to help the team win down the road.
“For him to come out right away and kind of tell us that he wanted to make sure we had some flexibility down the road, and he wasn’t looking to take the max amount of money he could, meant a lot to me … showed his faith and his commitment to the organization, and him wanting to be here and be successful here,” said Grier. “It was pretty important, and pretty cool for me to hear that from such a young player, having that maturity.”
Celebrini isn’t the first star player to go the route of taking less to make their teams better. The question is, how does his first contract stack up against the first contracts of some of the other top players in the league?
It’s a little difficult to say because Celebrini is somewhat of a unicorn. There aren’t a lot of players who have jumped into the league at 18 and made as big an impact as he has in their first two years. His contract can be best compared to players like Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. To a lesser extent, you could also throw Connor Bedard, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews into the mix.
| Player | Age | Years | Contract Length | Cap Hit | Percent of Cap |
| Sidney Crosby | 20 | 2008-2013 | 5 Years | $8.7M | 15.34% |
| Connor McDavid | 20 | 2018-2026 | 8 Years | $12.5M | 15.72% |
| Connor Bedard | 21 | 2026-2031 | 5 Years | $15M | 14.42% |
| Steven Stamkos | 21 | 2011-2016 | 5 Years | $6.3M | 11.66% |
| Patrick Kane | 20 | 2010-2015 | 5 Years | $6.3M | 10.61% |
| Jonathan Toews | 21 | 2010-2015 | 5 Years | $6.3M | 10.61% |
Looking at the numbers, Celebrini’s contract is the average length of most of those players, five years. He’s taking up a higher portion of the cap than Crosby or McDavid, though by about 1%. For comparison’s sake, Carlsson, whose contract kicks in this season, comes in at 17.31% of the cap to start.
It’s also worth noting that two players aren’t on the list, Nathan MacKinnon and Alexander Ovechkin. For MacKinnon, it took him a bit longer to break out as a player. After his rookie season, he scored 38 points in his second season and then 52 points in his third season. The Avalanche signed him to a seven-year contract worth just 8.63% of the salary cap, one that later came to be known as one of the best deals in the NHL.
As for Ovechkin, he isn’t on the list because while he had an exceptional entry into the NHL, he signed an irregular contract, one that isn’t even legal in today’s NHL. At 22, Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals agreed to a 13-year deal that, at the time, was 16.82% of the salary cap according to Puckpedia.
Why didn’t Celebrini sign a longer deal?
In an ideal world, the Sharks would have locked Celebrini up for three more years, getting him to the max eight years and eating up more of those unrestricted free agent years. However, Celebrini clearly only wanted to burn one year of his free agency before working out a new deal.
Grier was very matter-of-fact about the contract, and he seemed to understand that it was just the nature of the league right now.
“I think every manager who has a player like Macklin, of his quality and his status, sure, we would have loved to have gone eight years, the full term allowed, but at the same time, I think we’re happy that he was willing to commit these five years more years with us,” said Grier.
“Every player is different. Some players want the security of as many years as they can get, and other players want to kind of see how things go,” continued Grier. “I think in this situation, it makes all the sense in the world for Macklin to commit these five years to us, which we’re happy about, but at the same time, give them some flexibility to look and see where the cap is in five years, see how the team’s doing, how the team’s involvement evolved. Are we winning? Are we on track to win, and things like that. So, I think it gives them some options down the road. I think every player handles this differently and wants different things.”
